BOSTON—There are three things that stood out on Thursday as the Cardinals attempted to rebound from their horrible display of less-than-World-Series quality baseball in Game 1.

The news of the day, in the wake of the Red Sox’ convincing Game 1 win, was that a St. Louis Cardinals’ farmhand, a minor-league pitcher named Tyler Melling selected in the 39th round of the June 2011 draft, suggested via Twitter that Red Sox winning pitcher Jon Lester had a foreign substance hidden in the webbing of his glove and that he was cheating.

Indeed, there is a photo lifted directly from TV that shows something there and a GIF that shows the lefty touching that spot with the tips of his two fingers just before he sets to throw. The weather was cold and dry. Is that cheating?

“We cannot draw any conclusions from this video,” was Major League Baseball’s official response, hastily concocted by Thursday morning. “There were no complaints from the Cardinals and the umpires never detected anything indicating a foreign substance throughout the game.”

Two things immediately come to mind.

First, is a sense of deja vu. There was the Cardinals’ accusation in the 2006 World Series stating that the dark, rough smudge on Detroit Tigers starter Kenny Rogers’ hat, a spot that he constantly seemed to gravitate to just before pitching, was cheating. More recently, there was the Clay Buchholz controversy in May, when Jays broadcaster Jack Morris noticed a glistening forearm and accused him of cheating in a game inside the dome at the Rogers Centre.

“If you know Jon Lester, he sweats like a pig and he needs rosin,” Sox manager John Farrell said. “And you know what? He keeps it in his glove. Other guys will keep it on their arm. Other guys will keep it on their pantleg. So that’s my response to the allegations. The one thing that is very odd is that it shows up in a lime green colour. I don’t know how that can happen.”

It all comes down to the same thing — it’s not cheating.

Hitters use pine tar to improve the grip on their bats while pitchers are allowed a rosin bag that sits on the back side of the mound, meant to provide a better grip as they hurl a slippery round object in the direction of the hitter at speeds up to 100 m.p.h.

Farrell, while admitting Lester made use of rosin in his glove, denied there was anything else involved. The most realistic interpretation is that the green tinge to the resin was caused by a mixed-in sunscreen product. Is that cheating? No.

The second subject, is pondering the potential repercussions of the umpires overturning the obviously wrong call at second base in Game 1 by Dana DeMuth on a dropped throw by shortstop Pete Kozma.

A plan is already in place for next season where each manager will have a certain number of challenges for calls they believe were wrong. TV replays will be observed and a call will be made. But the umpires getting together in this manner to overturn a call by an umpire at a base is rare.

It was expected next year’s rule change regarding replays would speed up the game without the need for managers to charge onto the field and plead their cases with the umpires. In theory that sounds good, but now after the Game 1 experience, now that umps have shown they can get the call right without replay, will managers keep their challenge in their pockets and race out onto the field anyway, citing Game 1 as precedent? Then after three minutes of that, will they throw the challenge and delay it another three minutes.

Will the games, instead, become longer?

The third issue, and one that will be interesting to see how it plays out in St. Louis, is how Farrell and the Red Sox will handle losing either David Ortiz or Mike Napoli from their batting order without the DH in the NL park. Both are vital to Boston’s offence.

“The one outside view might be to put Mike Napoli behind the plate (and Ortiz at first base), but we wouldn’t do that,” Farrell said. “One or the other is going to sit, unfortunately.”

So if only one of the two Sox sluggers can play those games and with four right-handers in the Cardinals’ rotation, history shows it’s likely to be Big Papi. In 2004 at Busch Stadium, Ortiz started Games 3-4 in the field, going 2-for-7 with a run and a RBI. In each game he was replaced by Doug Mientkiewicz in the seventh. In ’07, Ortiz started Games 3 and 4 in Denver, again going 2-for-7 with a run, two RBIs and a walk. Kevin Youkilis replaced him in late innings with the lead.

The biggest issue will not be the presence of Ortiz’s glove but rather the absence of Napoli’s bat.

This series could still be interesting.

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